Chapter 3:
It is about a half days journey more, by horseback, before they make it to the cave system, and they spend it, for the most, in companionable silence, broken only when Loki points out to Thor some part of the landscape with some history behind it. Loki, ever like a well of knowledge, seems to know everything, and Thor listens to his soft, lulling voice with rapt attention, soaking his words in.
They stop only once to rest their horses and eat, and then they are on their way again, the rest of the time spent in quiet reflection.
By the time they do reach their destination, the sun is at its highest point in the sky, the heat bearing down unpleasantly upon their backs, and Thor watches his brother with a concerned eye.
Loki has never done well in the heat, and he can see it even now affecting him, his movements noticeably more sluggish than would normally be the case, sweat heavy and thick against his brow and soaking through under the arms and down the back and front of his tunic. He'd long ago removed his riding coat, draped over his horse's rump.
"Are you well brother?" Thor asks as they dismount, moving towards Loki's mare and taking the reins from him. Loki lets him without protest, moving away and leaning slightly forward, hands on his knees as he takes in some deep breaths. He nods weakly.
"I am alright." He answers, though there's a slight waver in his voice, and Thor knows he is struggling. "I'll just need a moment."
"Here." Thor begins, removing his water skein from his belt and handing it over to his brother. "Drink this."
Loki looks up and straightens slightly, taking it with shaking fingers. He offers a weak smile to Thor, and the Thunderer can tell he's embarrassed.
Thor wishes he wouldn't be, but he understands why.
Loki endures enough already the criticism of others, their belittling his physical strength. Though Thor makes a point never to mention it, it is true, Loki is not as strong as the other gods, and within a culture where the power of your arm is heralded above all, it is a difficult thing to own.
Thor watches only a moment as Loki takes a generous pull from the skein, before turning away and giving his brother a moment alone to recoup.
He leads their horses to a shaded spot beneath a copse of trees and ties them securely, and by the time he returns to Loki's side, his brother seems a bit more recovered, less shaky, though still Thor can see minute tremors working through his hands and limbs.
He knows he risks Loki's temper by asking, but he would rather take Loki's scolding than end up with his brother ill.
"Do you need to rest a while Loki? We can sit in the shade for a time before going into the caves."
Predictably, Loki shakes his head no, and Thor doesn't miss the way he clasps his hands tightly together to stop them trembling.
"I'm fine." He insists, smiling, another weak attempt. Thor doesn't even attempt to look convinced, and so Loki continues…
"It will be cooler in the caves. It's best if we move on and get this over with."
Thor has to concede Loki makes a fair point there, though he can't help but take note too of Loki's seeming urgency now to be done with their quest.
He realizes Loki had been hesitant two days before, when Thor had come to him with the idea. But that was always how Loki was, overly cautious and a bit of a homebody. It always took a greater effort to get him out and about than it did with any of his friends, but once he was able to convince his brother, Loki always seemed happier for it.
Though, now Thor thinks on it, Loki had been even more reluctant than usual this time. He'd said something about hidden dangers and there being a reason the artifact they sought had been placed in this particular system of caves, why none ever journeyed here to find it.
But Thor hadn't really been listening, shrugging his brother's protests off as he always did, teasing Loki into agreeing by asking if he was too cowardly for the trip, and if so, he would gladly go request Sif and the Warriors Three to come join him instead.
Brilliant as Loki was, Thor understood his pride to be a fragile thing, and he was, at times, absurdly easy to manipulate into doing what Thor wanted of him. Not that Thor would ever say so, lest Loki become wise to his frankly blunt tactics.
"Are you sure you are well Loki?" Thor presses, still concerned. "If you need time…"
"I said I am fine!" Loki finally snaps, that famous temper of his flaring slightly.
Thor raises his hands in acquiescence.
"I know Loki." He says gently. "I did not mean any insult by it. I just wished to make certain you were ready."
Loki huffs, visibly trying to calm himself.
He glances away, eyes casting to the ground.
"I know." He says softly. "I'm sorry. But really, I am fine. I wish simply to make our search and then be on our way."
Thor eyes him a moment longer, regarding him closely.
"If you are sure…" he finally relents.
Loki nods.
"I am." He replies, handing the water skein back to Thor and crossing his arms. "Let's go."
"Alright." Thor says, placing the skein back on his belt without another word. He doesn't want to sour Loki's mood further and risk the remainder of their quest to unhappy moods.
/
The system is vast.
Far larger than either of them anticipated, though Loki had done his best to research the area before they'd left, having found some partially completed maps.
They both now understood that no one had ever fully explored the place though. At least, no one that had bothered to make a record of it, in any event.
They'd been walking for the better part of an hour and a half now, the only light to illuminate their way the small witch light Loki held in the palm of his left hand, held out before them as he and Thor walked side by side, and still, they'd yet to come across any sort of artifact, or any indication of any sentient being having been here in the last several centuries at all.
The system was a literal maze of twists and turns, and Thor had long ago lost track of where'd they'd been and which direction they'd come from. His unease in that realization was settled only by the knowledge that Loki remembered exactly the way they had come and would know without error the way back out.
There were times, more than a few, when Thor was eternally grateful for the steel trap mind his brother possessed.
Another half hour of walking, few words passed between them, only the occasional sound of scurrying mice and rats to fill the dense, stale and damp air surrounding them, and Thor was beginning to lose inspiration.
Some quest this was turning out to be, he thinks bitterly. Thus far, they'd encountered no danger of any sort, no sign even of anything but miles and miles of endless, pitch dark to wander aimlessly through until they grew bored.
He is just about to open his mouth to tell Loki that he'd had enough and was ready to return to their horses when Loki's hand suddenly presses firm against his chest, stilling him sharply.
"Wait." He hisses quietly, voice no more than a whisper, and immediately, Thor's senses are on high alert.
He knows that tone in his brother. Knows Loki has spotted something to set his caution high.
As seconds pass without further indication from his brother, Thor asks, voice pitched low…
"What is it?"
"There." Loki whispers back, pointing towards the ground, some several feet ahead. "You see that there?"
Thor strains his eyes to see what his brother is referring to, but all he can make out is the dirt covered ground, tinted grey like dust in the dim light of Loki's flame.
He shakes his head slowly.
"No," he says. "I see nothing."
"There!" Loki hisses again. "You do not see that?"
"See what Loki?! I see nothing but plain earth!"
"There, the soaked through ground." Loki says in return, still hushed. "Do you not see how it undulates? How it works its way through the rock beneath?"
Thor huffs, straining his eyes again and still seeing nothing. He doesn't understand how Loki's sight can be so good in such blackness, and he begins stepping forward to see if he can glimpse a closer look, but Loki nearly shoves him backwards in an attempt to cease his progression.
"Stop, you fool!" He snaps, voice pitching higher in an almost panic, and Thor freezes, taken aback by the franticness in his tone.
"Loki…?" He begins warily.
"We need to go." Loki says. "Right now."
"Loki, what is this?" Thor presses, confusion gripping his mind. "What has you so wary?"
"That is venom." Loki says, the urgency in his voice winding tighter. "Some manner of venom. There is some creature here possessed of it and we need to…"
His words die in his throat as there comes suddenly from behind them a terrible, piercing hiss, breaking through their ears like the crash of waves upon rock, and the next thing Thor knows, Loki is shoving him out of the way, hard and fast, screaming at him to get down.
And then everything is a blur of violence and chaos.
Thor turns from where he's crashed, hard, into the compact earth beneath them, his vision filling with glistening red coils, thick around as the entirety of his frame, unnaturally bright and visible in the dark of the caves, folding ceaselessly atop one another in a nightmarish testament to its length.
The deafening hissing fills his ears again, seeming to rattle his bones and his eyes search frantically for the head.
For his brother...
And then he hears it, and his heart sinks like lead in his chest, the high pitched whine, choked off into a half suppressed cry.
Loki…
Thor surges to his feet, his hand falling to his side and finding the hilt of Mjolnir, pulling her free and raising her high.
His eyes finally catch sight of his brother then, staggering back from the giant serpent, clinging white knuckled to his forearm, and Thor's eyes go wide, panic settling deep in his gut at the sight of dark red, seeping between Loki's pale and trembling fingers.
He has his other hand raised up and forward, towards the snake, and the Thunderer can see the gathering of Loki's magic, forming violent and bright and ready to explode.
And then comes again the terrible hissing, and Thor's eyes snap away from Loki, finding the beasts hideous head, only feet from his brother, and Thor knows in his mind the thing can strike in an instant.
Its mouth gapes open, revealing glistening, horrible fangs a foot in length each, and a forked tongue thick as Thor's wrists flicking out, again and again. Venom sloughs and drips from the fangs ends, coating them thick and shining.
He doesn't think then.
There is no time for strategy.
No time for consideration of consequence or fear.
Only the knowledge that Loki is in danger of being struck, and he leaps forward, twirling Mjolnir where she rests in his grip, the hum of her power singing bright through the air.
Loki does not see him, knows only the threat before him, and in the instant Thor flies into the space between, bringing his hammer up in a wide arc beneath the serpents maw, Loki's magic bursts forth from the tips of his fingers, impacting against the snakes flaring nose in the exact moment Thor's blow lands true.
There is an agonized cry, and somewhere in the back of his mind, Thor knows it is Loki.
Only there is no time to think on it, as the raw power of it blows both gods back off their feet, skidding away several feet, Mjolnir flying from Thor's grip, and the serpents head snaps upwards, crashing in a numbing boom against the roof of the cave, the entirety of the space shaking ominously to seemingly its very foundations.
For long seconds then, there is only the sound of displaced air and crumbling debris as it drifts down upon them, falling dust and pebbles.
Thor's lungs feel compressed, and for a moment, he cannot gather breath, struggling to suck air as he pushes himself up.
His eyes search desperately for Loki then, remembering his brother, the cry of pain he'd heard.
Relief floods through him when he spots the younger prince, only a few feet from him, pushing himself up from his back.
For an instant, their eyes meet, locked on to one another in the comfort of familiarity and reassurance.
It lasts but a moment, as Thor's eyes find the raw and sluggishly bleeding wound along Loki's forearm, the fabric of his tunic and steel of his vambraces torn asunder, revealing already swollen and discolored skin beneath.
His mouth falls open to call his brother's name, moving to stand to his feet, only to freeze, eyes widening, watching as Loki's do the same at the sound of stone, cracking, falling to pieces.
The both of them then find their heads snapping upwards, glancing the roof of the cave, and the serpent, reared up and mouth open, yellow blood seeping slow and useless from the things nostrils.
And across the roof, their eyes following the swift and sudden progress of a forming fissure, rapidly spreading and branching out into several, smaller breaks.
They know before it happens what it is.
And still, it happens too quickly.
The fissures spread, like iced flakes along a pane of glass, the sound of crumbling, loosing rock filling the space, below the renewed hissing of the giant snake, and then, like the blast of a heaving furnace, white hot and oppressing, there comes a roaring crack, like a great boom, and suddenly the roof is falling.
In massive boulders, chunks of it come crashing down with the speed of gravity to aid them.
The snake rears backwards, the ceiling falling past, just missing the beast, and Thor sees then.
He sees the boulders fall directly in his path. Sees there is no time, no space for him to move.
Loki sees it too, and his little brother's voice is the last thing he hears before the weight of countless tons come crashing upon him, taking him and the ground beneath down with it.
He falls, and it seems he falls forever, an endless drift down into darkness, blinding pain his only true companion.
/
AN: Another huge thank you to all my readers and reviewers on this thing! Again, I appreciate you all so much, and I hope you continue to enjoy the story. Please let me know what you think if you have a chance!